Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar » 2008

This time the gloves really come off, and it shows

Tuesday, Jan 22, 2008 - Posted by Kevin Fanning

[Note from Rich Miller: This is my new intern Kevin Fanning’s first blog post here, so try to be gentle. Thanks.]

If you hedged your bets that last night’s CNN democratic debate in South Carolina would be the equivalent of last debate’s love fest, today’s political headlines must be leaving you extremely disappointed. Headlines today include “Debate gets fiercely personal” in the Trib, “Debate turns heated as Obama, Clinton allege distortion” in the Daily Herald, and my personal favorite “Sparks fly in most contentious debate to date” on CNN.com.

On a night that was supposed to be reserved by the Congressional Black Caucus Institute to debate how best to realize Dr. King’s vision for a better society, we witnessed an example of how best to tear it apart. The claws came out, and only John Edwards was able to crawl out of the ring without a battered face.

Minutes into the debate accusations flew back and forth between Clinton and Obama. Hillary looked too aggressive, Barack was too defensive, and Goldilocks was left in the middle asking how “is this going to get us universal health care?” After a bitter exchange about the Clintons’ portrayal of Obama’s “fondness” for Ronald Reagan the junior Senator from Illinois snipped back:

“…what I said was is that Ronald Reagan was a transformative political figure because he was able to get Democrats to vote against their economic interests to form a majority to push through their agenda, an agenda that I objected to. Because while I was working on those streets watching those folks see their jobs shift overseas, you were a corporate lawyer sitting on the board at Wal-Mart.”

This obviously hit a nerve with Hillary who moments later asserted:

“I was fighting against those ideas when you were practicing law and representing your contributor, Rezko, in his slum landlord business in inner city Chicago.”

And on it went , ranging from how Obama’s health care plan isn’t universal to how Hillary voted for a banking bill that favored big business to how Obama voted present too many times in the statehouse to how Hillary and Bill have been tag teaming Obama, and finally concluded with Obama having to answer if Bill Clinton really was the first black President. Which to his credit I thought he gave a hilarious response, and in Governor Blagojevich’s words regarding the transit bill “took a lemon and turned it into lemonade.”

After last night’s royal rumble one thing is certain, the general election will be no cake walk for either candidate. If Hillary comes out alive after February 5th she will have to mend fences with an angry African American community who came out in numbers to vote “uncommitted” in Michigan.

If Obama wins the nomination he will have to answer to the attacks made by the Clinton campaign. Is his universal health care plan really universal? Why did he vote “present” 130 times in the state Senate? And most of all, the Achilles Heel, what was your relationship with Antonin “Tony” Rezko? All of these questions threaten the central theme of Obama’s candidacy, honesty and openness in government.

I guess we’ll just have to hold our breath to see which candidate limps their way to Denver.

66 Comments

Question of the day

Tuesday, Jan 22, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Dana Millbank has a marvelous column in the Atlantic this month, wherein he “translates” DC Political Speak for us. Here are a few examples…

I don’t pay attention to the polls.
My job-approval rating is 32 percent.

Frankly …
The following statement is false.

You are either with us or against us.
You are against us.

I hope we can work together in a bipartisan way.
I need to pick off one senator from the other party to pass this bill.

This should not be a political issue.
My party has a winning political issue.

It’s time to stop playing politics.
The other party has a winning political issue.

* Question: How about some Springfield Political Speak translations?

Have fun.

67 Comments

No way to run a railroad *** UPDATED X1 ***

Tuesday, Jan 22, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller

* This is not good news for Republicans hoping to hold onto retiring Congressman Jerry Weller’s seat…

“I have done very little fundraising,” [GOP candidate Tim Baldermann] said. “It makes me sick to my stomach. My campaign people gave me a list of people who gave money to (Weller). I told them, ‘If you think I’m going to call somebody who’s never heard of me and ask for $2,300, that’s insane.’ I fight with them every single day over it.

“They wanted my Christmas card list. I’m not doing that stuff. I refuse to do it. The Republican Party wanted me to run; the Republican Party should help fund my campaign.”

So, he’s only gonna raise money from people he knows, except he won’t even do that? Yeah, that’ll work out well.

Campaigning is not a pretty business, but there are things that just have to be done unless you’re wealthy. Cold calls, putting the arm on friends and family are all necessary if you want to compete in a game where contributions are capped and the competition is stiff.

Debbie Halvorson and the Democrats must’ve smiled broadly when they read that passage. [See update below.]

* And then there’s this…

[Baldermann] stands by a 2006 vote while he was school board president that set in motion a salary adjustment affecting his wife. Megan Baldermann is principal at Nelson Ridge School.

I guess he has no choice but to stand by the vote now, but, that ain’t good either.

* Meanwhile, at the risk of losing my Sun-Times column, what the heck is this?

The Sun-Times Editorial Board asked candidates some less-serious questions on its endorsement forms. In response to a question about the best pair of shoes they ever owned, Seals listed Merrell clogs so old his wife wants to throw them out, and Footlik said, “You’re really asking a guy with the last name ‘Footlik’ what his favorite shoes are? Come on . . .”

Um… Oh, never mind.

* More congressional stuff from Paul…

* Politics: Hastert to campaign for Aaron Schock

* Bean: ‘Economy again’ - Iraq war was ‘misread’ as lightning rod of 2006 election

* Congressional hopeful offers new name for King Day

* Catholic Schools To Be Honored by Lipinksi. This Reporter Is Not Happy

* Netroots hunt Lipinski

*** UPDATE *** A representative from Tim Baldermann’s campaign just called. I was assured that while Baldermann doesn’t love fundraising he is diligently making calls and doing what it takes.

Just thought I’d let you know.

39 Comments

Zorn on the Con-Con

Tuesday, Jan 22, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Eric Zorn thinks the state Constitutional Convention referendum will fail this November. Sure, we’re all mad as heck now, Zorn writes, but…

Soon enough, you’ll see opinion polls showing strong public support for the “it’s broken, throw it away and start again” position.

But next, mark my words, the Baby-Bathwater coalition will go to work.

A well-funded campaign backed by an astonishingly diverse set of business leaders, activists from across the political spectrum and other civic and political leaders will pour millions into a campaign aimed at replacing hope about what changes we’d see from a Constitutional Convention with fear.

Special interests or the entrenched powers might hijack the process. They might take away hard-won rights, throw out the good with the bad, then give us a document far worse than the one we have. We already have a process by which we can fix the constitution via amendment rather than trashing it.

Proponents will counter that the current system is designed to protect fiefdoms and thwart the amendment process. They’ll say the ratification requirements will provide safeguards against a runaway Constitutional Convention. But voters will decide not to risk it and send the referendum measure down to a whomping defeat.

* I wouldn’t be so sure. Both political parties opposed a Con-Con twenty years ago, and their affiliated interest groups funded the “No” campaign. Labor and business walked hand in hand and the entire media establishment went along for the ride. I don’t hear any of those people and groups gearing up this time around.

The Republican Party would be insane to oppose a Con-Con this fall. It’s their best bet to motivate voters to the polls. And a whole lot of Democrats are jumping on board. It ain’t just Pat Quinn and his merry band of goo-goos any more.

Plus, what better way to show your anger at Gov. Blagojevich’s goofiness than to vote for a Constitutional Convention in the hopes that his bizarre wings will be clipped? He personalizes this issue for voters in a way that just wasn’t the case the last time this came up.

Twenty years ago, there was no uproar about an out of control governor, or a dysfunctional General Assembly. And, there was still hope among the punditry and the political elite that school funding reform and a whole host of other issues could be resolved. There has been nothing done on any of that since then. They haven’t even been touched. There is no longer any hope of progress with our current system and our current actors.

Three things will kill this off…

1) The powers that be learn to behave themselves this year and voters calm down;

2) A deep recession scares the daylights out of people and their fear gets the better of them;

3) Gov. Blagojevich embraces the idea as his own and voters naturally recoil.

* John Bambenek has more.

Thoughts?

29 Comments

Governor: “I vetoed the tax hike” *** UPDATED X1 ***

Tuesday, Jan 22, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller

* I wondered how long it would take before he used this line…

“I didn’t (give in). I vetoed it. I rewrote the bill,” [Gov. Blagojevich] said when asked if since he gave in on this tax increase he might do the same to get a capital construction bill passed.

* Yep. He vetoed the tax increase for mass transit. That’s the line we’re gonna here for the next three years. “I didn’t sign it, I vetoed it.”

And reporters will eventually give up because Rod Blagojevich was born on message. He’ll say it over and over until even he believes it [if he doesn’t already] and then will spend millions on TV ads with the same message. “I vetoed the tax hike.”

Never mind that he officially certified the tax increase bill and with that certification he made the tax increase the law of the land. He won’t admit that, you see, because tax hikes are wrong…

“My guess is (House) Speaker (Mike) Madigan is going to push another tax increase, and the worst thing you can do during a slowing economy or an economy that’s going into recession is add more burdens to people and raise more taxes on people,’’ Blagojevich said. “I would oppose that.”

Raising taxes is “the worst thing you can do” except when it isn’t. Or something. Whatever.

* And what about adding “more burdens” on people? Here’s more of what the governor said yesterday…

“I felt we should ease burdens on our seniors … and make it easier for you … for people who are seniors who are trying in the autumn years of their lives to get by.”

* Um, maybe the next time the governor goes on one of his statewide jaunts, he can visit Jacksonville…

Modern Care Nursing and Rehab Center in Jacksonville is closing its doors in 90 days because of financial difficulties related to delayed state aid payments.

No burdens added to any seniors there. Just a bunch of old people who will no longer have a place to live because your administration can’t manage a budget. Thanks, Rod, for saving so many seniors from “unnecessary burdens.” You’re the best. Smooches.

* PS: That’s a nifty new website you got there, bub.

* PSS: Oh, yeah. I almost forgot. Nice rhymes…

The first stop, a short statement at the annual PUSH Excel Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship Breakfast, saw the governor break into a quick little poem.

“There were some dark clouds hovering over the CTA.

But those dark clouds have rolled away.

Now the sun is gonna shine

So you can get on the blue line, the brown line, the red line.

And everything will be just fine.”

* More stuff, compiled by Paul…

* Blago: Seniors should sign up

* Luck of the Irish and its proactive transit programs

* Illinois Democrats are bruised from months of infighting

*** UPDATE *** From the governor’s remarks in Peoria yesterday…

“Rosa Parks and the civil rights movement in a lot of respects began over a seat on a bus. And, uh, I’m here to talk about a different kind of way to get a seat on a bus. Not exactly Freedom Riders, but we would like to make those of you who are seniors have a chance to be able to ride for free.”

Oy.

Listen to the full statement here.

37 Comments

Morning shorts

Tuesday, Jan 22, 2008 - Posted by Kevin Fanning

* Flash from the past: Rezko indictment: The ABCs

* Toymaker fights state recall

In what could trigger the first test of Illinois’ strict law against lead in toys, a major toymaker is refusing to pull a popular, but tainted, doll from store shelves across the state.

Illinois authorities thought they had reached an amicable agreement late last year with Ty Inc. to have the company voluntarily remove its Jammin’ Jenna dolls from retailers because the toys contained high amounts of lead.

* Honeymoon Is Over At Tribune

* Illinois Supreme Court justice returning most of her campaign donations, more here

* She Brakes for Ideology

The next time you are stuck in traffic (and when are you not?), you might take a moment to ponder Mary Peters’s contribution to the fix you are in.

* Legends lost

* Giuliani to speak at DuPage County GOP Lincoln Day Dinner

* Latino voters making their voices heard

* Schakowsky co-sponsors bill to end U.S. horse slaughter abroad

* Sawyer led to Daley II’s long reign

* Park Board debates bus subsidies

* ISRA & Cabellas fight Suffredin

* Several Latino leaders endorse Suffredin for state’s attorney

* Brookins, Alvarez get endorsements in race to replace Devine

* Recorder’s contest attracts challenger

* Illinois towns eligible for funding in emerald ash borer fight

* Kiyoshi Martinez: Elephant Man

9 Comments

Protected: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Full Poll Results; Martinez; Madigan; Granberg; Voting; Schmitz; Krause; Peterson; Lindner; Meyer; Bradley (Use all caps in password)

Tuesday, Jan 22, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller

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Protected: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Today’s edition of Capitol Fax

Tuesday, Jan 22, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller

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Protected: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY (Part 2) - Watson; SEIU; Tribune; Jones; U of I; Catholics; Transit; Housing; Drugs (use all caps in password)

Monday, Jan 21, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller

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Question of the day

Monday, Jan 21, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Carol Marin lauds House GOP Leader Tom Cross and state Rep. Julie Hamos for their legislative work this year and concludes…

Someday, Cross may run for governor. Someday, Julie Hamos may be speaker of the House.

Both of them have earned a shot at those posts because, in the end, they served the people of Illinois more than they served themselves.

* Over at the Tribune, Mary Schmich sang Hamos’ praises…

If Chicago’s long mass transit soap opera has a hero, it’s Julie Hamos, a woman with a unique idea of fun.

“Believe it or not,” she said Friday, sitting in a Chicago cafe, “I find transit sexy.”

Hamos, the state legislator behind last week’s new transit law, calls herself a wonk. She likes her issues the way some people like martinis — dry. She reads policy reports as avidly as other women devour O magazine, though she does watch Oprah’s show some nights at 11.

* Question: Rate the likelihood that Tom Cross will one day be elected governor and Julie Hamos will be House speaker. Explain.

48 Comments

Will gridlock slow Wrigley Field sale?

Monday, Jan 21, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller

* The quick sale won’t be so quick…

When Sam Zell’s $8.2 billion deal to take Tribune Co. private was announced on Opening Day last April, former Cubs President John McDonough said the ballclub probably would be sold by the end of the year.

But a proposal to sell Wrigley Field to the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority has slowed progress on the Cubs’ sale, and team Chairman Crane Kenney said Saturday the company likely will own the team for the upcoming season.

And what’s the reason?

Kenney later told reporters any deal with the ISFA could take time because the Cubs need to gather political support from Mayor Richard Daley, Gov. Rod Blagojevich, Speaker of the House Michael Madigan, Ald. Tom Tunney, state Rep. Sara Feigenholtz and state Sen. John Cullerton. Kenney said the company hoped to get a deal done on the ballpark by Opening Day on March 31.

I wouldn’t bet on it being that soon, considering all that’s happened with the transit bill, the gaming bill, the electric rate relief bill, the health care expansion, the budget vetoes, etc., etc., etc. Also, notice that Kenny didn’t mention Senate President Emil Jones. Jones may now feel slighted, which could complicate matters [just kidding… mostly].

The Wrigley Field sale is one reason to support gridlock. This is a goofy idea all around.

15 Comments

Sick of mass transit? It ain’t over yet

Monday, Jan 21, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller

* The Southern Illinoisan belatedly editorializes in favor of holding transit riders hostage in an editorial entitled “Downstate lawmakers should have stuck together”…

As long as downstate votes were needed to OK the mass transit bailout, there was at least a chance to link the bailout to a long-needed capital improvement bill - which would fund school construction in Southern Illinois, allow the work to begin on a nearly $50 million Transportation Education Center for Southern Illinois University Carbondale, and fund highway and infrastructure improvements.

We had leverage as long as the bailout and capital bills were inseparable, and the Southern Illinois lawmakers who refused to consider one proposal without the other should be thanked for their determination and perhaps remember favorably on Election Day.

That assumes that a capital bill was ready to go by January 20th. It also assumes that a gaming bill was ready to go. Those are both false assumptions. So, what were legislators to do? Allow Chicagoland’s public transit to crash and burn?

* But now, even Chicago legislators are eager to see a capital plan, so progress is expected some time relatively soon…

While the CTA and Pace averted steep service cuts and fare hikes with passage last week of the $530 million transit funding package, slow and crowded trains and buses — commuters’ biggest complaints — won’t disappear.

The money will go to keep trains and buses operating, not to finance vital construction projects or buy new trains, buses and related infrastructure, officials said./blockquote>

* But a cleanup bill for that aforementioned transit bailout is apparently needed…

The free rides for seniors proposal was supposed to apply to all transit systems in the state, but the way the bill was drafted it eliminates any city with a population under 50,000.

* Meanwhile, my syndicated newspaper column looks back…

While I still think things will eventually calm down and Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s insistence that senior citizens be given free rides on all mass transit systems will one day be viewed as a welcomed entitlement, it’s obvious that lots and lots of Illinoisans don’t feel that way right now. […]

Blagojevich’s amendatory veto of the transit bill to insert the senior freebie resonated loudly throughout every region of the state. Legislators reported receiving dozens, even hundreds, of calls and e-mails from furious constituents urging that the freebie be rejected. Even many senior citizens were angry.

It was as if the entire state had morphed into the Illinois House, which always has a negative reaction to anything the governor does and draws together whenever Blagojevich makes one of his goofy plays.

* And ahead…

The fall from grace isn’t over yet. Blagojevich, Jones and the House and Senate Republicans risk irking voters again with their push to expand gaming in Illinois and Chicago in order to pay for a capital construction plan.

The public is not happy with this expansion plan. According to that Fako & Associates poll, just 38 percent say they back a plan for a Chicago-owned casino along with two more boats, slots at tracks and expansion at current riverboats, while 57 percent oppose the idea. The poll of 801 registered voters was taken Jan. 3 to 6 and has a margin of error of +/- 3.46 percent.

Moreover, the public is incredibly cynical about how the cash will be spent and how the new casinos will be operated. For instance, 60 percent of registered voters agreed with the statement: “Politicians in Springfield and Chicago can’t be trusted to keep their promise to actually use profits from–casinos for mass transit and infrastructure projects,” while 67 percent agreed with this: “Politicians in Springfield and Chicago cannot be trusted to expand gambling in Illinois and would be influenced and corrupted by stakeholders in the new casinos.”

Sixty-seven percent said they thought organized crime and gambling addiction would increase with expanded gaming, 72 percent said Chicago can’t be trusted to run a casino without scandals and corruption and 71 percent acknowledged that casino revenues aren’t a stable funding source.

The numbers likely show one reason why House Speaker Michael Madigan has dragged his feet on gaming expansion during the run-up to the Feb. 5 primary. This is not a popular idea. And it’s just one more public opinion bomb waiting to go off in the governor’s face.

13 Comments

Morning shorts

Monday, Jan 21, 2008 - Posted by Kevin Fanning

* Black and white congregations come together to honor Martin Luther King Jr.

* Jesse White, others dislikes King statue

* The reluctant mayor

* Sawyer, Chicago’s 2nd black mayor, dead at 73

* Friends, foes pay tribute to John Stroger

* Casino talk surfaces in Illinois’ south suburbs

* Political power grab vs. patronage haven?

* Prosecutor race divides Dems

* Dumbing Down The Electoral College

* Elections officials defend safety of technology, watchdogs say it invites fraud

* Sticks, stones might break bones, but will attack ads hurt hopefuls?

* Running for office in 14th district? Better remember to bring your sling - Dueling GOP candidates are trotting out dead cows and felonious donors in effort to pull ahead in competitive congressional race

* Crowd rallies for 10th district

* In Our View: Lauzen and Foster the best options

* Durbin endorses Democratic businessman Dan Seals for 10th Congressional District

* Seals takes another shot at Kirk, but first must get past Footlik

* Manzullo gets a serious case of tax rebate fever

* Sauerberg’s position on abortion

* Sweet column: Obama tackles Bill Clinton on negative hit man role.

* Obama donates money linked to indicted developer

* Race hides campaign’s bigger issues

* 7 Jewish senators reject ‘malicious attacks’ on Obama’s faith

* Does Clinton have a shot in Obama’s state?

* Lawsuit against 2 Downstate doctor groups dismissed